50% chance of thunderstorms through Sunday

A 50 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms will come back into the forecast from Thursday through Sunday, and of course it will be hot and humid with afternoon highs ranging from the upper 80s to low 90s and dropping to around 70 at night.

It’s a very typical weather pattern for this time of year. We are in the final week of spring as we head toward the beginning of summer on Saturday afternoon at 5:44 p.m. Eastern Time.

The first day of summer brings us our longest daylight of the year and our shortest night.

Storms this time of year produce lots of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, and while it can be lots of fun to watch the electrical display of a distant thunderstorm, it can be dangerous if you get up close and personal. If you can hear thunder, then is close enough to strike. Count the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and the thunder and divide by 5, because it takes sound about 5 seconds to travel a mile.

This gives you the distance in miles to the lightning strike. If you count to 10, then the storm is only 2 miles away.

Have a weather question or need weather data? You can reach me anytime at weather1@charter.net.